Inside Boundaries: Democracy and the Practice of Internal Exclusions

Abstract

Debates about the boundary problem usually focus on general normative principles and tend to ignore the ways in which real-life democratic practices establish enduring boundaries within the demos itself, for instance, active and passive disenfranchisement, judicial banishment or institutionally embedded forms of underrepresentation. This panel aims to approach the boundary problem “from the inside”, by asking the following questions: 1) what are the specific political rights that matter for membership in the demos (active/passive franchise, free association, equal representation, etc.)? and 2) how do practices of exclusion and/or marginalization that the demos imposes on particular categories of people (offenders, mentally disabled persons, transgender and ethnic minorities, etc.) weigh in on their normative connection to the demos.